School dishes out iPads to all its freshmen

Emma Woollacott, 2nd April 2010

Kids just don't know they're born these days. Whilst our generation thought ourselves lucky to get paper and a stub of pencil - no more scratchy slates, hurrah! - a bunch of spoilt brats over at Seton Hill University are being kitted out with iPads.

The Greensburg, Pennsylvania liberal-arts school has announced that all freshmen are to get an iPad and 13-inch Macbook. Current students will have to make do with just the laptop.

There'll probably be something of a rush of applications now.

"You will have complete access to these mobile technologies for classes as well as at all times for personal use," the university promises.

"After two years, Seton Hill will replace your laptop with a new one - one that you can take with you when you graduate!"

Unfortunately for the students - or more likely their parents - the kit doesn't come free. Opting in to the program http://www.setonhill.edu/ipad/ costs $500 per semester, or a bargain $1,000 per year.

The university is also installing a new wireless network supporting VOIP as part of a big initiatlve called Technology Advantage.

The university intends the students to use the devices as e-books, for research, contacting staff and engaging in online courses. They can also, it says, "create a just-in-time learning environment" - so, so different from the long, hard, carefully timetabled slog that most students endure.